Although Idzik likes to build through the draft, he did make a lot of free agent moves this offseason. Last season we were cap starved and we picked up Ivory, that's about it. This year, he was able to get the best receiver the Jets have in years in Decker (though he had to pay good money), a starting caliber runningback in CJ2K for nothing, and a solid backup in Vick for cheap. That's quite an offseason for a GM who likes to build through the draft if you ask me. The point is Idzik would rather pay a third of the price for a B+player instead of overpaying for an A.
The term 'Building through the draft' is kind of sketchy. While a few teams trade away their draft pics, most teams draft as much talent as possible every year. It's what the team DOES with the rookies that matters. Where a coach like Parcelles would rather stab himself in the jugular with an oyster shucker than start a Rookie, Idzik would rather kill himself than overpay for a FA. Idzik's philosophy demands a talented coaching staff dedicated to developing and bringing up rookies as fast as possible b/c help ain't coming via FA. For example, Idzik sent Revis and his $16M packing, drafted Milliner for $2M, and turned things over to Rex to make it work. I realize this is the extreme, but you'll be seeing more and more of this every year. Idzik will re-up players like Kerley and Mo to a nice 2nd contract, but 2nd tier players like Powell/Cumberland will be replaced with rookies.
Last time I checked, it took Seattle THREE YEARS before they looked anything special. [Went to playoff with *Gulp!* 7-9 record. 7-9!!] How are the Jets doing? They are in need of fixing LBs, secondary and OL - and possibly, QB. WR corp looks less than sexy, but all it takes is one great QB to utilize them. In terms of the organization, they are MUCH better off than they were two years ago. Their depth was depleted AND the starters were getting old. Most of that was fixed in a hurry.
Seattle got incredibly lucky when they hit on many mid to late round draft picks. It's unreasonable to think anyone, let alone our Jets, would be able to duplicate their path and it would be foolish to try to.
Good post top to bottom - I especially like your first line. Everyone essentially tries to build through the draft. It's not like Idzik is bringing some top secret philosophy from Seattle here. Everyone tries to draft the best players they can on draft day. It's the getting that part right that is the tricky part. Time will tell on Idzik and his drafting. I don't think we can really be too sure of his philosophy and the OP, and many of the armchair analysts here make some assumptions that may or may not be true about him. There is this assumption that he isn't big on free agency and wants to build things in house. Yet he goes out and signs Decker (the top offensive FA in this class), Chris Johnson and Michael Vick. In many cities that would be considered a free agency boon and he would be looked at as wanting to build through free agency. He trades draft picks for a Chris Ivory, etc. all of those go against that supposed philosophy. I think Idzik is still very much a question mark with what his philosophy actually is and obviously to whether or not it is or will be successful.
If Idzik had followed up the big signing of Decker with a $9M a year corner we'd be headed right back down the path we were on for most of the last decade. You can't fix problems that way and build a team at the same time. Just look at the Redskins for an example of what happens when you try to fix your problems through veteran free agency. The Jets came close to building a team through veteran free agency a couple of times. In the early 00's they signed guys like Damien Robinson, Sam Cowart, Dave Szott, Josh Evans, Donnie Abraham, Aaron Beasley, Sam Garnes, Curtis Conway, Pete Kendall, Eric Barton, David Barrett and Reggie Tongue over a 4 year period to start for them. They lost a lot of young homegrown talent in the process "because you can't pay everybody..." Then in 2007 and 2008 they signed or traded for Thomas Jones, Anthony Clement, Kenyon Coleman, Abram Elam, Brett Favre, Tony Richardson, Alan Faneca, Damien Woody, Kris Jenkins and Calvin Pace. Both efforts wound up in eventual collapse because you can't keep buying into the mid to late primes of players and also develop and keep your own young players. Parcells got away with it only because he was bringing "his" guys in and he had a very narrow window in mind. He gave the Jets a "team" transplant on the way in the door and completely changed the culture in the process. Nothing that he did was looking past the 1997 to 1999 window. To his credit he made sure he left the Jets a young QB, a solid offensive line and some young pass rushers as he went out the door. Think about that for a second. Parcells was totally disinterested in the Jets by the time he left but he made sure that he left us with the most fundamentally important things for a contending team in the NFL. For the guys who wanted us to sign a CB this last off-season. Who did you want? Donnie Abraham? Aaron Beasley? David Barrett? That was the quality that was out there.
Bradway your post makes no sense. Idzik signed Dimitri Patterson. He is the Donnie Abraham, Aaron Beasley, David Barrett level corner you are referring to as if he avoided that path in free agency. He didn't. But anyway there was at least one corner out there named Darrelle Revis who happens to be quite another level higher than those smucks. He was signed by our biggest division rival, that supposedly "builds through the draft" as well.
Since we're on the topic of Seattle, I saw they cut Terrell Thomas yesterday. The Jets better get him in here for a look. Got nothing to lose and he could be a decent fill-in.
Watch we finish the season with the same record as Seattle. 9-7, 8-8. The way they losing players it looks like they wanna be jets west
Building through the draft or building through FA is really a % thing. Idzik seems to be 70/30 build with home grown rookies, and grab one or two good FAs. DeadSkins, Raiders, seem to be 30/70 in reverse...putting much more emphasis on getting FAs that are already house broken. Most HCs would prefer building through FA. It's much easier to coach a guy who's been in the league 7-8-9 years and knows what he's supposed to be doing. Taking Idzik's approach of building with rookies puts a tremendous onus on the coaching staff to get the youngsters hooked up and ready to compete at the NFL level in just a few months. I remember being frustrated as hell watching Penny sit for 2-1/2 years before having his name called. Some coaches just can't deal with rookies. I'm not sold yet that Rex is all that good coaching Rookies either, but he has gotten a lot better the last 3 years. Rex seems to be in his glory surrounded by Vets. But he's slowing changing things up. This will be an interesting year.
On one level you're right but there's so much more to it than that. Competition plays a huge role in this whole ideology, so it doesn't fall entirely to the coaching staff to maximize players potential. He also clearly utilizes free agency, considering he went out and got Decker, CJ, Breno and Vick. The key is is visible because of where he spent money. Since Geno is young and inconsistent, he bit the bullet and gathered up a consistent WR target and an excellent RB to make life easier for him. He also spent money on Vick to help him along and push him, and a reliable RT. Where consistency is more important (surrounding a young QB) Idzik spent the cash to make sure we got what we needed. On defense however, he is comfortable knowing we have excellent coaching and spends riskier high picks on defensive players. Of course it depends on who is available when their draft position comes up as well. By ensuring there is good competition on both sides of the ball, whoever ends up winning the spot must have separated himslef from the others at least on some level. I'm very curious what position Idzik ends up investing our first round pick in for 2015, I wouldn't be surprised if we go for a the left tackle of the future, but of course that's a long way off. I think that by spending lots of picks, we will only see rookies get major playing time early in Idzik's tenure (unless of course they stand out immediately) because we really were remarkably devoid of talent when he came in. I believe that as early as 2015 we may start seeing a bit more time before rookies get on the field. I think he bit the bullet early and put them out there instead of signing FA's, and now we have a ton of young talent as a direct result.
I hate to say it, but there's a better than not chance that pick one or two will end up being a CB. Other than Milliner, and maybe McDougal, there is little chance that our starting CB's for '15 on the team now. In reality, the hole at CB could be handled in FA or via trade instead though. Kyle Wilson, I believe is a FA next year, and unless there is a miraculous transformation in his ability, he's out the door. I like your thought about going LT, or anywhere on the line, with a high pick to let them watch behind D'Brick or Mangold for a season or 2 before they're pressed into service.
Building through the draft doesn't preclude you from signing a few very big name free agents to take one or two last stabs at the SB before your HOF franchise QB heads for the hills. Same thing is happening in Denver. They are both teams in prime position to contend for the title above all others in the conference.
I believe you're right that the whole 'build through the draft' will die out as our team gets 'built'. Also, this xs cap money we're all talking about is very temporary too. It's a reflection of being in the first year or two of signing rookies for key spots on the team. 2-3 years from now we'll be up against it like every other team for sure.
Every team in the NFL is going to build both through the draft and free agency. All in all, Idzik has been very active in terms of acquiring players via free agency and trades: Ivory, CJ, Decker, Vick, Gianconmini, Babin, etc. There aren't some bench warmers, but key players. I think his philosophy is more about finding good deals in free agency and staying away from overpriced free agents, even if it's a team need. Everyone we got came here with a good deal, even Decker, while we stayed away from guys like Jairus Byrd and Rogers-Cromartie, even if they filled a need, because they came with such a high price tag for their position/talent level. This approach does place more demands on drafting, because you are not going to automatically fill every hole with free agency, so young guys are expected to hold the fort, but in the long run, it lets you round out your team more efficiently, without wasting money on "panic" deals. One thing that might be a benefit to us, is that even if Geno gets better (hopefully) but stays a middle of the pack QB, and not an elite one, we could resign him for a decent amount, without killing ourselves with the salary cap. I've seen so many teams struggle after resigning an elite QB to a megadeal, because they just dont have enough money left over to round out their team afterwards (see Flacco, Rodgers, etc). But with our defense and run game approach, we could win with an average QB, and still have money left over for the rest of the guys.
The Pete Carroll tenure is the period that is viewed as the building of the current team, and in his first two seasons the Seahawks went 7-9 in both before ascending to 11 wins and then 13 and a Super Bowl. You don't have to dominate right away as long as you are putting in place the pieces that can and hopefully do dominate 3 or 4 years down the line. In that respect the Jets certainly look like they are emulating that formula. Whether they put in place the right players to do so remains to be seen.
One more CB somewhere would have been nice, but I still like a majority of what Idzik has done. I know a lot of fans wanted some big FA splashes, but that just isnt going to happen. Building through the draft and having low cost high upside players is such a sound strategy. If that means being a below average to average team for a year or two, so be it. Like others have said, Seattle is a powerhouse right now, and they struggled for a couple years. Its just the nature of the beast. Unless you draft a Peyton Manning, this is how it has to go. Idzik is trying to put us in position to draft strictly BPA going into next season. CB is absolutely our biggest need so I wouldnt be shocked if we signed a decent CB and then went into the draft going strictly for the most talented player. This way, any position besides QB/HB/DL is fair game. I'm not going to absolve Idzik of any blame, I think he could have handled the CB situation a bit differently. Overall, I like the situation he's putting the team in. If McDougle comes back next year and is healthy (Big IF), a secondary of Milliner/Pryor/Allen/McDougle is no joke. I think this team is being set up to have no major weaknesses.
